Jena VDG@jena_vdg

Images by jena_vdg

It was exactly a year ago that I got to take the best trip of my life. A 7 day bike tour, ranging from 40 mile days up to a 95 mile day through the mountains and small towns of New Mexico. It was an experience I’ll never forget. It made me fall in love with road biking again and gave me the chance to see a part of the country I would never have thought to go visit. Plus I got to hang out with one of my best friends ever: my big bro. Life really is beautiful.

We discovered this incredibly beautiful place called Oregon. Most of the time it didn’t even look real. I can’t believe it took me so long to visit. And the little town we stayed in was an hour from the coast and an hour or so from the cascades. It was perfection.

I spent yesterday up in the mountains on one of my favorite trails. While I was hiking up, I met up with a 20-something kid (everyone’s a kid once you turn 40) from Australia. He travels all over the world taking pictures for a magazine. He couldn’t get over how beautiful everything was up there and all over Utah. When we separated he said, “enjoy living here.” I haven’t been able to stop thinking about those 3 words. Because I really really do enjoy living here. And I hope I never take all this beauty for granted.

Being a hockey mom definitely has its perks. Like hearing your son’s name called by the commentator over the radio and then being interviewed about his first official WHL game. And then listening to the same commentators wondering how many kids have come from Utah and made it in this league... “none that I know of” was their decision. I love you @hockeyaid4. I would spend another 6 years driving all over the country to help you achieve your dreams.

Utah, girl, you just showing off now. I love you just like you are. Don't ever change. I mean, I know it's Fall and technically we have to have 4 seasons, but let's just pretend you won't change. This moment in time was so perfect, there were even falling leaves in the pic. #utah#love#truelove#fall#trailrunning

This is from my 60 miler today. I never knew New Mexico had scenery like this. It was like this during my 90 miler yesterday too. It's been the hardest riding of my life but also the most rewarding and beautiful. I've ridden plenty of century rides but yesterday was 9 hrs of grueling uphill and headwinds the entire time. Which in the end, made it more worth it. My brother and I were the only ones to do it so we had one of our guides with us. And according to them, they've been doing the New Mexico backroads tour for 3 years, once every month, and he and I are the only ones that have chosen the long 90 miler and finished. That made me feel pretty good. But give me a normal century flat ride any day over that riding. I'm exhausted. Still have 2 more days of riding left. Can't wait! I can't recommend Backroads enough. The 3 guys who are our guides will be lifelong friends and all the people on this tour have been amazing too. They make sure all you have to worry about is pedaling and they take care of the rest. It's a thing of beauty for a mom of 5 😂

Day 2 brought 50 miles of beautiful riding over the rio grande, a tiny town made completely out of scrap metal and completely self sustainable (my destination during the zombie apocalypse), tarantulas walking across the street like it was no big deal, and ended up in the Taos mountains where the aspens were golden and the pines were green. I loved yesterday. Bring on 90 miles today. (jk. I want to lay in bed all day watching tv).

Day 1 of 6 ✅. It's all been beautiful and it's just going to get more and more so. I'm a bit nervous about the 90 mile day which is sandwiched between 50 miles the day before and 60 the day after. 😬It will be a week to remember for sure. #teamomaha#biking#roadbiking

You know when it's 68 degrees at 1 in the afternoon and it's almost October? You automatically turn into a sun goddess. So that's me...worshipping the sun on one of the most beautiful days I've ever worshipped. #fall#fallrunning#running#keepsmesane

What a whirlwind 2 weeks it has been! I couldn't be prouder of Aidan. He signed his first pro contract with the WHL Oil Kings for one year. I couldn't believe it when he was drafted a couple of years ago. We never would have thought they would have signed him as a 16 year old. That doesn't happen very often. So we're still in Canada scrambling to figure out if he is going to relocate here permanently or come up for the 10-15 games and then move here next year. Who ever would have thought that a kid from Providence Utah would make it this far to play in games that sell out to 18,000 people. I love you Aidan. And I'm so proud of you.

1st day of school. And we've got photobombing @hockeyaid4. He's back from Colorado for a week so he and I can go to Edmonton for his other team, the Oil Kings, camp. Be prepared for bombarding of pics from our Canada adventures! #🇨🇦herewecome